POLITICS, BUREAUCRACY AND PUBLIC POLICY: THE CASE OF URBAN RENEWAL IN NEW HAVEN

The theory of pluralist democracy describes how a political system provides for decisive government action, maintenance of broad responsiveness, and protection of minority interests. It is based upon a market model of politics. The central mechanism of this model is electoral competition, in which public policy is produced as a consequence of the struggle among political leaders. The widespread dispersion of political resources ensures that public policy will be kept within the boundaries of broad acceptability; the slack within the system of resources allows both for decisive action by government and protection against adverse policy by affected minority interests.;Slack in the system of resources within the public sector and particularly in the urban renewal policy arena was effectively eliminated and the City administration used in its control over its resources to create a powerful redevelopment bureaucracy. Dispersed resources, particularly at the neighborhood level, became fragmented and less effective in relation to the concentrated resources controlled by the bureacracy. Inter party competition--a characteristic of New Haven's politics for almost a century--was replaced by a system dominated by a bureaucratic machine.;The key to this transformation was the impact of the urban renewal program in New Haven. The infusion of substantial resources through the renewal process into the local political system, and the control of these resources by the redevelopment bureaucracy had enduring effects on the city's political system.;The central theme of this study is that the political conditions necessary for the existence of a pluralist democracy in New Haven were weakened during the 1960's and a competitive political system transformed into a monopolistic one.